Wednesday, 26 December 2012

A mixtape to call near the needs of other Subvert Central members, by
way of comfort in sound, challenge in mood, customary fittings for my 15
Minutes Of Fame diverse selections and listenership, plus the
inter-spreading of emotions from childhood Pop to regal Rock and back
again.

Friday, 21 December 2012

As a writer, I'm conducting a survey on "the blues" cause in society. Nay tonight's cast lumping turds with nu-gaze acoustic Folk styles. Darren Hayman ends my listening fizzed up, scribbling - I couldn't get past his third about his dream girl looking like "that lesbian off of Brookside".

But I mean really. Where else to find a better solution to "the blues" than Folk nights? Whether it's foot-tapping sea shanties, or token hyper-literacy - take My Crooked Teeth's "Like an ostrich with my head in the sand, I couldn't see the signs", almost borderlining genius sequencing through lolloping lines and multifaceted raunch, you're guaranteed entertainment. Take local songsmith Trev Williams: a reinvented Michael Stipe of REM turn Anglo-American-ness if ever. "Lucky", his fourth after opener "Happy Song", placates the line "You can run for miles, or become a skeleton", following his chant and handclap loop FX. It tells harmonic structure belying much of depression and why it's experience - not only because an artist is total shite, but of all the scientific implications too. Thankfully Trev, even with a Christmas song on his tracklist, doesn't slip into tribute band second-rate-ism; it's ultimately down to his idiosyncratic integrity.

My Crooked Teeth, while lacking the accompaniment, plays a mean melodic guitar line, with gut-tippingly powerful lyrics, including "Hurt tells me to ignore what I've done to others" which really hits home. Read deaf, impact doesn't compare, but this is the power of sound - its determinancy shapes what we do, and when we do it. Explaining why The Bully is ceremoniously packed out by the time Darren Hayman enters the room. His second tune is so delicately played on the acoustic he reminds me of Helios' Keith Kenniff, despite the musings about "Bringing the waves into ground so we can make places to park" offering counter-direction. Steely rimshot to the 8 ball finish. From what's witnessed Darren promises much, My Crooked Teeth strap the rockets to the storm cloud, and Williams plays resoundingly, without whimsy. Three reasons why this evening was a corker above blue moon station.

Saturday, 15 December 2012

Catch A Groove, the biweekly show set up by DJ Trax and Nucleus for Old Skool & subversive D&B, paid host to Paradox as their first special guest this December, with the show approaching its 1st Anniversary on 9th January. "Dev was over in the UK and enjoys the show and as you know we are all old friends so it was natural to get him involved" Dave Trax says. You can download the archive or listen via SoundCloud here.

Trax also says in his Subvert Central thread another special guest is confirmed, and I for one have high anticipation of the results. "It was a nice show!!!" remarks Dutch producer Infest there, one of the artists Dave would later find an upcoming prospect after our 2009 interview, on the DJ Trax website, and in The Dastardly Diaries Chapter 3. "Excellent show as always" adds Strictly Digital's Solar, the label Nookie operated in the early to mid noughties. "Particularly liked the early 90's vibes. Takes me back to the days of British Knights and Fiesta XR2 cars, even if I was only about eight at the time!" This shows wide appeal the show has accumulated already.

"Great history lesson" elucidates top blogger DIB on Catch A Groove Show 22 featuring Paradox. While in my own view regarding Wrekanise's Maledicent's question: "How do you think the music has progressed over the last 7 years, compared to the progression through the 90's? I only mean tracks that use a breakbeat in both eras and only D&B", I comment: "I think it's quite self-evident to anyone that the rulebook mentality is quite rigidized by sticking to the same breaks to make up many tunes. People like Macc and Paradox have been consistently able to look outside of that though, and maintain their signature ruff'n'tuff drum workings. Personally the experimentation comes with emptying all the contents out on the tune, then discarding the clutter but keeping the progressions exciting. Martsman was the first to really catch my ear 2007 to 2008 for making a break his own, and morphing the beats so they became something notoriously rational.

But really, full kudos has to go to Seba and Paradox for their 2004-2009 refractive assuaging of the scenic properties that make up modern D&B - while sticking to the breaks, and sticking it 'to' the breaks, of old."

"Be sure to support the show by sharing ;)" ends Trax. Tune in to www.jungletrain.net at 8-10 PM GMT every other Wednesday for Catch A Groove. Listings on the Jungletrain website. Or better yet, keep updated by visiting Subvert Central when you're ready for a Hardcore / Jungle / Drum & Bass fix.

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Well, you can play any YouTube video or SoundCloud track. If there's
more than one "DJ", you take turns to play your track. You can search
for SoundCloud or YouTube tracks from your playlist window; also import your
(or someone's) playlist/favourites. Listeners and other DJs can "woot"
or "meh" playing tracks, which gives additional points for the current DJ
(to get new character), or they're forced to skip track, if they receive too many
negative votes.